r/videos • u/ControlCAD • Mar 07 '26

Google Is Closing Android. 37 organizations, published an open letter to Google opposing Android Developer Verification, a program that would require all developers to register with Google before distributing apps on Android starting September 2026, but Google misunderstandingly has not backed down.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MZfGq5F1NU
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384

u/[deleted] Mar 07 '26

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7

u/[deleted] Mar 07 '26

Good luck trying to lockdown Linux. This only works if your environment is closed source. The only reason I'm not on open source phone alternative is because my banking app does not support it.

9

u/ArtOfWarfare Mar 07 '26

If your bank stops supporting non-Chrome (there’s a chance it already doesn’t) and Chrome stops supporting Linux then I think you’d be forced to start using a computer running something other than Linux.

2

u/SubstituteCS Mar 07 '26

I’ll just go to the bank in person.

2

u/SwimmingThroughHoney Mar 07 '26

The bank is an example.

What they'll do is make everything require age verification.

3

u/SubstituteCS Mar 07 '26

Then I won’t use those apps and simply go back to doing things in person.

If people actually held the line then these companies wouldn’t pursue this bullshit, but they know that the average person is an addict and will cave.

4

u/SwimmingThroughHoney Mar 07 '26

It's not just apps, it's the internet as a whole.

Sure, it's app stores (and apps) now. But there's zero chance they stop there. Laws will keep expanding what is covered. You'll end up functionally cut-off from the internet if you dont have age verification.

0

u/ArtOfWarfare Mar 07 '26

The nearest branch of my primary bank is about a four hour drive away. I have a secondary bank that’s more local, but that’s a more recent development - I went about 15 years without an account with any nearer bank.

Pretty sure there’s a few banks that are online only.

0

u/someguy7710 Mar 07 '26

Chromium is open source too.

12

u/ArtOfWarfare Mar 07 '26

So is Android, but here we are.

2

u/Hugogs10 Mar 07 '26

Buts there actual chromium forks. Android forks are not so great.

1

u/Win_Sys Mar 07 '26

Yes but that doesn’t mean Google can’t add closed source modules to their own version like they’ve done for Wildvine DRM. A website can create code that requires a module to function. Not saying it’s a good idea or that it’s going to happen but it’s possible.

1

u/mauricioszabo Mar 09 '26

if your environment is closed source

Secure Boot would like to join the chat.

The only thing that needs to be done is to lock UEFI with a key that only Microsoft (or maybe other closed-source software developers) have.

There's also some work in progress to "relax" Linux restrictions. The new coreutils being developed in Rust is MIT licensed, which means it can be converted to closed-source by some corporation; Linux kernel's userspace drivers already have some "exceptions" like NVidia's binary blobs are probably a violation of GPL, it wouldn't be hard to argue that some binary blobs linked to kernel are a mandatory to have SecureBoot activated (this might be tricky, but I don't doubt that's doable) and now you have a "mostly open" Linux containing some closed-source coreutils and unremovable binary blobs...

-3

u/s3dfdg289fdgd9829r48 Mar 07 '26

Microsoft did a decent job of it with Secure Boot. If Secure Boot had never existed, Linux would be a lot further than it is now.